Night of the Bloody Spears
This page may be a Stub or not include some information. For a full article on the topic with citations, please see ' ' at Greyhawkonline.com. Highport was once the center of a bustling shipping and trade industry that moved goods up and down the Wild Coast and to and from the southwestern and southeastern portions of the Flanaess. For a time the population had a seasonal high of nearly 10,000, with additional numbers coming from the many sailors, marines, and merchants who made Highport their temporary home. This all changed in 513 CY. Having been driven from the Lortmils in the Hateful Wars just a few years before by the combined armies of the Ulek states, Veluna, and the demihumans of the Kron Hills, many of the humanoids fled southward into the Pomarj. On the 11th of Planting that year, the humanoids attacked Highport. While the other towns in the Pomarj were full of men gone soft, the people of Highport were hard workers and supported by sailors with years of experience fighting pirates, savages, and strange monsters from the deep. Five times the orcish armies were repulsed from the city, but on the sixth assault the gates were sundered as the hour approached midnight and the invaders entered the city. Large portions were set afire, and any defend ers who were caught were slaughtered, their bodies impaled on any sharp objects available and left on the city wall. Those who escaped dubbed it the Night of the Bloody Spear, and the tale they tell has remained a testimonial to the savagery and determination of the humanoids of the Pomarj. Much of Highport was left in ruins. The orcs rebuilt enough to make it livable and eventually reopened the city for trade. At first every one avoided the port, but some of the bravest pirates finally decided to try a stay and found the new owners reasonably tolerant. The word spread, and in a few years the shattered city of Highport was again a common stopping place for naval trade, although those captains who chose to put to port here kept their hands on their swords and several deck hands awake at all times. Evil men of many nations began to settle in the city, accepting the orcs as ugly brothers with the same black hearts as their own. Half-breeds of all sorts became common. Evil tem ples of the vilest sort sprang up everywhere and waged subtle and grue some wars with each other. The town was ruled by a coalition of tribes, split by factional disagreements and blood feuds, with fighting breaking out between rival groups at least once a month. Justice was unknown, as right was determined by whoever had the faster sword arm. Pirates based here harried shipping all along Woolly Bay and even into the Azure Sea. This corrupt condition lasted for over 50 years, with different tribes gaining ascendancy at different points and at least two human- and half-orc-controlled governments taking control during this time.